Silver Water (Historical Context)

Historical Context

America in the Early 1990s

The decade opened with George Bush in the Oval Office. One of the most significant events of his term was the Persian Gulf War undertaken by several countries belonging to the United Nations-most notably the United States — against Iraq after its 1991 invasion of neighboring, oil-rich Kuwait. The UN forces quickly defeated Iraq, and Bush enjoyed great popularity and international praise.

At the same time, however, his administration was drawing criticism on the domestic front. A recession hit in 1990, and as the economy faltered, unemployment rose. The number of Americans living below the poverty line grew by more than 2 million in 1990. The United States was also experiencing a trade gap, particularly with Japan, and Bush and other U.S. business leaders were unable to persuade the Japanese to import more American goods. The 1991 federal deficit also surged to $282 billion. The Persian Gulf War and the bailout of the savings and loan and banking industries contributed to this deficit.

In 1992, Bill Clinton was elected president, beating incumbent George Bush and independent Ross Perot. Clinton was the first democrat in 12 years to hold the nation’s top office. By the end of the year, the U.S. economy was well on the road to recovery. By the middle of the decade, Americans, on the whole, enjoyed a comparatively high level of prosperity. The United States also continued to enjoy the world’s largest economy. Clinton experienced other major triumphs in the early years of his presidency, particularly balancing the federal budget and reducing the national debt. Unemployment began to go down, and the stock market boomed.

Health Care Changes?

When Clinton ran for president, many middle-class Americans felt that health insurance was out of their reach; wealthier Americans could afford high premiums, and poorer Americans were covered by Medicaid, but there was no assistance for middle-class families. One of Clinton’s campaign promises was to bring affordable health care within the reach of all Americans. A bill that would support changes to this effect never even came to a vote in Congress, however. Opponents charged that such a sweeping reform would be too expensive and would also limit Americans’ ability to make their own decisions. Health care has been the subject of great debate throughout the decade, particularly with the rise of HMOs and increasing costs for health care. By 1993, the United States was spending around $884 billion on health care each year.

Mental Illness in the United States

In the mid-1800s, Dorothea Dix was instrumental in the founding of mental hospitals in the United States, where ill people could get the help that they needed. Prior to her efforts, many mentally ill people were put in prisons along with criminals. These mental hospitals have remained in place through the beginning of the 21st century, however, funding for these institutions has been diminishing throughout the 1990s. Some reformers and legislators began to focus on the issue of caring for the mentally ill, both to protect them and to protect U.S. citizens. In the 1990s, a schizophrenic man in New York City pushed an innocent woman into the subway tracks, just as a train came into he station, killing her. It was later discovered that the man had been in and out of mental institutions for years and that he should have been taking medication to help control his hallucinations and dangerous impulses.